A different kind of painting

I´m an instant gratification kind of painter. 

I´ve tried aquarelles but the building up of colour takes time. I´ve also tried oils, but the drying times are not to my liking. My favourite kind of paints are acrylics. Specially applying them directly to the piece I´m working on which my painting teacher says is quite unusual and I´m the only one of her students that works this way. Trust me to be the odd one. ;) *grin*

I usually work on small size wood pieces or A5 paper. A4 being the biggest I´ve used with just one exception of a big cardboard.

Taking into account my taste for big, fast coverage I was truly happy with this painting project:

First we had to go through a deep decluttering stage to empty that bookcase. Many old magazines and frames found new homes through FB, boxes of letters and cards were purged and archived, old class notes went to the recycle bin. The sofa was moved downstairs.

The second stage was to remove the first layer of the wall paper, the decorative one which was easy enough.

The base layer was another matter. Armed with a bucket of warm water and detergent and a roller brush I got sections of the paper really wet and then scrapped it.

Whew! I see the walls again.

Mistake: we painted the bookcase over without realizing the varnish would prevent the paint to stick..  Lesson: sand all the wood surfaces.

We used water based interior sheer paint. Three layers of red later:

The other side of the attic. It doesn´t have a door and the fourth wall is a half wall. We painted the staircase white but have plans for a second painting stage. Stay tuned!

Julia Elmore shares her decluttering process to create space for her art

This month Jamie Ridler studios is focusing on making space, just like we are. Here are a few ways you can honour whichever stage of your creative cycle you’re in and Create Space this month.

If you have been procastinating about decluttering I highly recommend reading Julia Elmore´s post "Clearing the clutter to make way for clarity and productivity. I was cheering for her all through the post and it has a happy ending. :D

This month at the Keep it simple, make it work decluttering and organizing series we are looking at the entry ways but today we´ll look at the other side of the house. Recently Julia has conquered another space, a gateway between the kitchen and the back garden and she invites us to see the process. Then I´ll show you some of her beautiful paintings too.

Today has been all about creating a space to play, says Julia.

I have, for rather too long, been working on the dining room table or floor, spreading out and making my art, only to have to clear it all up again in order for my children and I to eat at the table. For too long now, I have been dumping my half-finished projects in a corner of the room until I have a little window to work on them again. Today, all that changed.

Today, I set about clearing the lean-to at the back of my house and making space for my art. It had previously been a dumping ground; an obstacle course between kitchen and garden; a nuisance of a place, dirty and half falling down. However, in taking my art and my passions more seriously, and determined not to let them take over our living space any longer, I made a decision to change this good-for-nothing space into an inspiring place for me to store my art materials and perhaps use to make art. There is no big table out there, so I could continue to use the dining room table or the big table at the bottom of the garden, housing my projects safely in this new space in between bursts of art. Or, I could use one of the wooden boards out there either balanced on top of the drawers or leaning against the wall, paper taped to it, as I have done indoors or in the garden in the past. It is not big, but it is enough.

In truth, it is the message I am giving myself that matters.

It was only in doing this today, in sweeping up the cobwebs and putting the remainder of my ex’s stuff into boxes, that I realised how truly vital a playspace is to productivity and happy home life for me. It is about giving value to my art and what matters to me and separating that from the necessities of family life, such as eating at the table. Simple, but true. Just took me a while to realise this.

Do you have a playspace for your passions? If so, what inspires you about this place? If not, what could you do to create one? I would love to hear your thoughts.

It has been a pleasure to read Julia´s story and I´m certainly going to keep an eye on her site "Be creative daily"  and her gallery of work. One of her pieces will be the illustration for Week 25 next Monday. Come back to see that one!

Self portrait

Fearless

Self portrait Spanish style

Getting tidy but messy on Paint Party Friday

This week for the decluttering & creating series we are going through our jewelry.

Option #1, the ready made: a frame with hooks on the wall. This is my pretties corner at home. The first hook has white, black and grey necklaces, the second reds and pinks, the third browns and oranges and the fourth purples and blues. I´m wired that way. ;)

 Option #2, the crafty version: a year ago I made this necklace hanger for Tati. You can click here for that post or here to read the decoupage steps we used on the first week for the pencil holder.

Now you are asking yourself: "What can we do with the pieces we no longer use?" For example:

Step 1: make some jell-o. Delicious, nutricious and really easy to make.

 Step 2: open the cardboard box.

Step 3: cut the pieces.

Step 4: get your choice of acrylic paints. Paint a base layer, let it dry. And now ... let´s get messy and do some finger painting. :D

 Step 5: poke holes on the finished piece. Eyelets will make them tidier. Use a necklace as a handle or as embellishment.

Share your jewelry corners here in the comments sections so we can travel around the world in a fashion tour! :)

PPF #4 v.2

This is the wip I posted last week for PPF#3. In fact I had considered it "done" but Carla Rey   was absolutely right when she said "Just look at that determined expression. I think she has quite a strong personality, and that you might find yourself drawn back to work on her some more. You might be done with her, but I sort of doubt that she is done with you."

And yes, here she is looking a bit more contented (her mouth is slightly fuller and has a hint of a smile). "What is the lesson (in this)?"

Working on her next:

I liked her head pose and hair but the colouring was going very wrong. Starting over, keeping the structure.

 I must have been feeling kind of blue as I gave her blue skin and a grey background. She has orangey hair though. Still some fierceness in her.

 Fireflies came from a story I read at Karen´s and the circles from a You Tube video by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

And now she is a redhead!!!
More on her next week.
I need to find a name for her. Specially since all three have been "her" so far.

PPF #3 v.2

Last week "she" made an appearance. I could have called her done at this stage but kept going.

Light acrylic base and watercolour pencils. The light gave her a rosy complexion but still the brush strokes were visible which annoyed me at this point.

Where´s she gone this week? you ask in dismay. She was covered by a more solid colour, skin tone to beging again.

She looks a bit grimmer this time around.

But she is done!

PPF #2 v.2

Working on my quotes/tips journal:

 My oooooh, ermmmmm, lady? girl? wise woman? voice? guide? whoever it is she has a female spirit. Where was I? Oh, yes. My "her" starts to show.

 Background details:
*tapping watered down acrylic with cloth (an old cotton T shirt).

 *water drop. Non intentional but cute.

 I´ve been practising proportions by copying faces from magazines. I wait for Tati at the school gates with my sketch pad. Today I met another mom with "I´m soooooo happy to see you! Let me have a look at your hair" Lol! She almost freaked out but she remembered I´m harmless. ;) "I can´t get hair line right", I explained showing my book in my left hand and pointing at her hair with my HB pencil in the right one.

 Some acrylics and watercolour pencil work. Still loads to go.

PPF #1 v.2

A year and a week of Paint Party Fridays. :D I´m having another go at "using stamp pads as stamps for backgrounds" like last week for PPF#52. 

On top of that I painted an old pink (in Spanish it is called "rosa viejo" it has a faded brownish tint, does it have a proper name in English?) acrylic wash with a dusty green for the borders. I love Mariza´s faces, with the dark green/blue colouring. I still don´t dare going too dark but I quite like the end result for a first version. :) I used watercolour pencils over white gesso.

This is my first double spread for a journal that was originally called "This much I know" and has become something like "Tips for living". Lol! The first one is "One thing at a time" aka "Do what is in front of you". I tend to be a scatter brain.

I sound like I have what my friend Mel calls:  A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.This is how it manifests itself:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.
As I head towards the garage, I notice post on the porch table that I picked up from the postman earlier.
I decide to go through it before I wash the car.
I put my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the recycling box under the table, and notice that the recycling box is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the recycling first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the post-box when I take out the recycling paper anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my cheque book off the table and notice that there is only one cheque left.
My extra cheques are in the desk in my study, so I go into the house to my desk where I find the cup of coffee I'd been drinking.
I'm going to look for my cheques but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.
The coffee is getting cold, and I decide to make another cup.
As I head toward the kitchen with the cold coffee, a vase of flowers on the worktop catches my eye - the flowers need water.
I put the coffee on the worktop and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.
I put the glasses back down on the worktop, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote control. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.
So, I put the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
The car isn't washed
The bills aren't paid
There is a cold cup of coffee sitting on the kitchen work-surface
The flowers don't have enough water
There is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book
I can't find the remote
I can't find my glasses
And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all bloody day and I'm really tired.
I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.....

I know everyone coming from Paint Party Friday is a painter but I also know that many of us dabble into other materials. I´ve been trying out the digi world lately.
When Liz from My Memories contacted me to review My Memories Suite v.3 the words "without" and "complicated" together totally got my attention. This is a software to create digital scrapbooks, photobooks, cards, calendars and other art pieces. I downloaded the software really easily. Very clear instructions all along and smooth streaming. 

Here´s my templates review from this week when I also chose some free embellies from the site, just for the fun of it.

Today I decided to try the personal design aspect. There were so many options to choose from that I started by participating in one of the speed scrap challenges at My Memories Facebook page. For a newbie it is great to explore the software with a guided exercise.

Do you want to try it too? ONE lucky winner will get a copy of the My Memories Suite v.3!

Leave me a comment here and I´ll add you to the draw. Are you a follower of my blog? I´ll add a second chance for you as a Thank You! Want another chance? Tell me which is your favourite theme to work with.

Week 10

As every Sunday this year (at least so far and hopefully for the rest of the year too) I will post my weekly summary for Creative Every Day. For third time in a row I have undertaken an "a picture a day" project, here´s Week 10. You can click on each picture to make it bigger. Every pic has been resized for  the web.

This week is aka "Can you believe?"

March 4th (64/64): Sunday lunch is a family affair at my in laws. Can you believe this is actually the first pic of the four cousins together? Our niece V is 2 1/2yo, Tati is 12 1/2, our nephew T is 3mo and Mati 16. Hubbie holding T.

 Monday 5th (65/65): torrential rain. Can you believe it is only half past three? Looks almost like after sunset.

 Tuesday 6th (66/66): one of Mati´s books. Can you believe the price? $167 is about 40 dollars. Don´t worry, it´s written on the shrink plastic that protects the book.

 Wednesday 7th (67/67): getting ready for this month´s full moon board. Can you believe I´ve been doing this for three years now? Thank you Jamie for the inspiration and the support!

 Thursday 8th (68/68): my Full Moon Board. Can you believe that the same things keep coming up again and again?

 Friday 9th (69/69): Can you believe this is my first acrylic painting of  this year? More about it in my Paint Party Friday #52 post. 

 Saturday 10th (70/70): Can you believe I´ve been stucked in Level 55 for over a week? Arrrrgggghhhhh!

More creative endeavours. I´m delighted to be able to show you this: 

Yay! Acrylics, watercolour pencils, brushes, inks and my beloved paperdryer (never use it for hair ;) ). And a WIP on the table too! I´ll show it to you next Friday for Paint Party Friday. :)

And also this: 

When Liz from My Memories contacted me to review My Memories Suite v.3 the words "without" and "complicated" together totally got my attention. This is a software to create digital scrapbooks, photobooks, cards, calendars and gifts. As my word for 2012 is "expand", an opportunity to expand my techniques was certainly welcomed as I had never tried the digi world.

To begin with, let me tell you that the process to download the software is really easy. Very clear instructions all along and smooth streaming.

When you start creating you may choose one of the templates provided (yumminess galore!) or making your own design. Today I will tell you about the templates that are provided which are plentiful and you can also add more from the My Memories site (there are many free ones too!) or any other one.

I had a look at all the pages of the album and chose my pictures accordingly. As I wanted to add more pics I used the option to add pages which can be used as a mirror for balance too. I was surprised by how smart the programme is to fit the pictures into the frames, placing the heads in the best possible position. The adding of text was very easy too, with cute little buttons with drawings that explain what they do. I even dared adding some embellishments!

All in all a fun experience ... and a completed album! My mom will be soooooo happy! :D

Here´s my first ever digital scrapbook page.

Do you want to try it too? ONE lucky winner will get a copy of the My Memories Suite v.3!

Leave me a comment here and I´ll add you to the draw. Are you a follower of my blog? I´ll add a second chance for you as a Thank You! Want another chance? Tell me which is your favourite theme to work with.